Behold The Lamb

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Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Familiar declarations to us as Christians.
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Something that we've heard again and again, it's so familiar in fact, that maybe when you hear,
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Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, it's so familiar that it doesn't really strike you.
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It's ordinary. On one level, it's good that that's ordinary because it's so important that it should be familiar, right?
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On another level, sometimes familiarity promotes indifference, just falls on deaf ears.
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What we're going to do this morning in this session is consider that great declaration as to what it means.
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Maybe we don't even know. As to its significance, maybe we really don't know what the significance is.
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Or if we already know and we already know the significance, it will resonate, it will motivate you all the more to consider the greatness of the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Maybe I'll start with the question, are you beholding the
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Lamb who takes away the sin of the world? If you are,
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I think you'll love this message and it will stir your soul. If you're not, you came to the right place again, so that you might know the significance of what it means and the greatness of what it is to behold the
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Lamb of God. John chapter 1 is going to be our passage, and so if you have a Bible, you can turn to John chapter 1 as we consider what it is to behold the
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Lamb of God. John 1 and two different statements, two different verses.
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We hear this, we see it in verse 29, and we see it in verse 36. Let's go ahead and hear those declarations right there from our own
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Bibles in those two verses. Verse 29, John 1, the next day he saw
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Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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Then verse 36, likewise, and he looked at Jesus as He walked by and said,
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Behold the Lamb of God. To behold something or someone is to say, look.
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It's to say, pay attention. It's to say, listen. It's a prompter of attention to say, behold.
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Listen. Look. Give it or him or her your full attention.
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They're important. Behold them. Who do we behold typically in our culture?
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We behold experts and rightfully so. If someone's an expert in a certain area that is of interest to you, they're the one you wanna listen to, right?
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We behold people who are the best in their field and rightfully so because if they're the best in their field and it matters to us, we'd wanna listen to them.
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People who are powerful, we behold them. In a sense, rightfully so.
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We love celebrity, maybe not so rightfully so, but we love the best actresses and the best actors, celebrities, and we behold them.
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When they speak, we pay attention and we listen to them. We know what it is to behold people.
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We understand this. I'm so glad we understand this. So that when we hear, listen, pay attention, we get it.
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We're good at this. It's built into who we are as people. Maybe something you aren't aware of,
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I wasn't aware of it, I'll confess, that when on these two occasions we're told to behold
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Jesus, they come to us in the imperative to command.
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We're called, not just suggested. John the Baptist didn't say, I have something
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I wanna suggest to you. John the Baptist didn't say, this would be a good idea. This has been my experience.
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No, with authority, he says, you, even though it's not translated that way in our
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English text, it's as if he's saying that you could translate it that way, as a matter of fact, legitimately. You, everyone here listening, behold the
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Lamb of God. Listen to Jesus. You need to listen to Jesus. You must pay attention to Jesus.
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I love learning that. I love learning things. And it's so great when you learn something new, you wanna tell other people,
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I'm so glad to be here today and say, I want you to know this. And if you already knew, maybe you should be the speaker. Maybe next time, it's not an option.
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Now, one question we would have after that is why? Why would he say, you must do this?
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Well, I think we're gonna get to the answer as we work our way through the passage, looking at it from different angles.
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And what we're going to do is look at some of the more important reasons we must behold
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Jesus. Some of the more important reasons we must listen to Jesus and give him our attention.
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One important reason for beholding Jesus is because he's greater than the greatest. He's greater than the greatest.
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Who's the greatest person in the Bible? The greatest person in all of scripture up until this point in time, we absolutely know who it is.
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Somebody thinking David, maybe. Somebody's thinking Moses, maybe. I might say, well, what about Daniel?
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He seems like a pretty good one. Maybe we should go through the hall of faith that we have in Hebrews and say,
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I've got a nomination, but we would be wrong, wrong, wrong.
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What's so interesting about our text in John 1 is the one who says, behold, the
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Lamb of God is the greatest man. He was weird.
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Wore camel hair, ate bugs, a wanderer in the wilderness like a lot of the prophets were.
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John the Baptist, greatest man who'd ever lived up until this point in time. Matthew 11, 11 tells us.
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Jesus tells us John the Baptist is the greatest. Why would he be the greatest? He was a weird guy. Because prophets did what?
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Prophets spoke for God. They're the greatest in so many different ways because they're passive in that sense.
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When they made declarations, it wasn't their opinions. It was none other than, this is what
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God says. So Isaiah, great prophet. Ezekiel, another weird one.
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Great prophet, great man, because what is happening? They're speaking God's words.
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And John the Baptist would be the greatest of the prophets, right? He'd be the greatest because he was the one, not like Isaiah who anticipated the coming
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Savior. He was the one who anticipated and how about saw him with his own eyes.
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All of those other prophets would have loved to have been the bug eater that John the Baptist was. Because he saw him.
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He announced him and he was actually there to introduce him. And so when you consider
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John saying, behold the Lamb of God. Why would we behold him,
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Jesus? It's because he's greater than even the greatest man who ever lived.
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It means a lot coming from John. John 1, verse 27, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal
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I am not worthy to untie. Just think of Matthew 11, 11. He's the greatest man and he says that.
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John 1, 30, this is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me and now we're in whole new territory, right?
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On a certain level, that doesn't even make sense. John, memo to self, you were conceived and born before Jesus.
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Yeah, but Jesus is none other than the eternal one, right? Greater than John.
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Greater than John. We could look at verses 15 to 18.
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We won't take the time to do that. But again, we see Jesus and his greatness. Greater than John.
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John 1, 1, we know that passage. The Word was God. He's in the beginning with God.
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John 1, 2. John 1, 10. The world was made through him.
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Yeah, he's greater than even John. And then we can start surveying the Gospel of John itself and hearing
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Jesus say things like in John 8, before Abraham was, what? Jesus says,
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I am. Behold the Lamb of God because he is the greatest.
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We know what it is to behold people. We know what it is to listen. We understand power.
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And it's good that we do so that we can understand the greatest one ever.
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And we can say, what does he say? He's the expert. He's the one.
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It's why that's a command. Makes all the sense in the world that it's a command. Look to him, pay attention to him, esteem him, worship him.
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Because of who he is. Let's talk just a little bit about celebrity. I don't know a lot about celebrity because I'm from Omaha, Nebraska.
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What do I know about celebrity? It was fun living in Los Angeles and you'd go to the driving range and you'd see
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Sly Stallone, you know? And you'd go call your friends and, you know, I saw Rocky today.
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He can't hit it straight, you know? That kind of thing. Or you see somebody else and you say, you know,
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I ran into so -and -so. Being in Nashville one time, visiting a friend and my wife and I are eating breakfast at a place and Nicole Kidman has to say to my wife,
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Molly, excuse me, so she can go to the bathroom. Kind of funny, you know, celebrity.
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I saw Nicole Kidman and I saw her go to the bathroom. How funny is that? I hear
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I can talk about it in Massachusetts. And she was with Keith Urban and he's a shrimp, you know?
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So I feel a lot better. I can name drop famous people.
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One time I was Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodyguard. How does that work? I don't know, but that was my assignment when
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I was on the weightlifting team at the University of Nebraska. See, I'm name dropping. I don't know much about celebrity though.
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People who are powerful, people who are the experts, people that we wanna listen to. But one time
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I was in another country and here's what happens when you're from Omaha and you're in another country. And they say, oh, where are you from?
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United States. And unless you say, you know, I suppose you could say Boston.
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That would be a decent one because people know where that is. If you say you're from Sterling, they'd say, what?
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Or West Boylston or wherever else. But you could say Florida because that's where the mouse lives.
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I mean, everybody knows Florida for at least that reason. And you could say Washington DC, they would know that.
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California, they would know that because the mouse lives there too. You know, that's Omaha.
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Oh, it's in the middle of the United States. Oh yeah, middle of the United States. Means nothing.
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But one time I was in another country and after the morning services, we went to a wealthy individual's home, wealthy man's house.
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So we went, we're having lunch, talking about the sermon. We were talking about substitutionary atonement and the implications and significance and it was great fun.
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And then something was low on the action. So where exactly in the
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United States are you from? Well, I'm from the central part. See, I've learned to not say where I'm even from.
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The very middle, Midwest. But where? From Nebraska. Where in Nebraska?
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I thought, this is pretty exciting. What's the deal? Great house, awesome.
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You know, everything's deluxe, beyond measure. Drinking espresso and it's just like wonderful.
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And so I said, Omaha. Omaha? What's it like to live in Omaha?
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And I thought, he's just faking. What is this about? I said, well, it's okay.
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You know where he's going with this? The wealthy guy. Do you know Warren Buffett?
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Warren, he gave me his list of all the things he's read about Warren Buffett and things he's read from Warren Buffett.
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And what's it like to live in Omaha? Have you ever seen him? If you live there, can you see him?
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And I said, well, I think you can see him. As a matter of fact, I know his home phone number and I used to have a key to his house.
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Pass the salt, let's talk about substitution. Warren Schmoren.
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And then he really wanted to talk about Warren, by the way. But I at least wanted to make a point. We should esteem people who are the best at what they do.
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No doubt, I'm not trying to deny that or downplay that. But we do need to remember that in the end, no matter who you are celebrity -wise, no matter what you've done and accomplished, like the rest of us, you're going to be pushing up the daisies.
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Like the rest of us, your time is short. Jesus, the greatest man who ever lived, because he was more than a man and he lives forever more as the resurrected one, you know how to behold.
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But make sure that that isn't perverted and misapplied. Take what you know how to do and be reasonable and give your best beholding, if you will, to Jesus.
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Because he's the greatest one of all in every discipline. And we're going to talk about why even more so as we move our way through this passage, different angles, different aspects.
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Jesus is rival -less, so we would want to behold him. Another important reason for beholding
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Jesus is because he's from heaven. He is from heaven. He comes from outside because he comes from God.
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Look again at verse 29 with me, where it says, John says, Behold the Lamb, those two important words there tell us he's from heaven.
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Behold the Lamb of God. The Lamb that God has provided.
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The Lamb who comes from outside of us. It's not internal. Behold the
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Lamb of God. He comes from heaven and he's given to you as a gift from God.
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You don't have your own Lamb. You don't bring your own Lamb or bring anything else.
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This tells us something about grace provided by God from heaven. Back in verse 16 of chapter 1, it says that we've received in him grace upon grace.
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How about verse 18, the end there? He has made him known. He's made God known. The God who is outside.
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The God who is beyond. The God who is transcendent. He's the Lamb of that God. He's come to us.
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It makes me think of John 3 .16 that God loved the world in this way.
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God loved the world in this unique, extraordinary way that he gave his unique Son.
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His one and only Son. Jesus has come from God from heaven.
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Two things that really struck me about this and stood out to me is the two times where John says, in verse 31 he says it, in verse 33 he says it, he says,
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I myself did not know Him. Just ponder that with me for a moment. I myself didn't know
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Him. For emphasis, I myself didn't know Him. Gift from God.
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Gift from God that comes not from inside on our own abilities or capabilities.
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He comes from heaven, from the outside. And it's a good and right humility from John to say, this is something
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I otherwise wouldn't know. We live in a world that is fascinated. And again,
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I'm going to say rightfully so. I'm not bemoaning it. A world that's fascinated by things from the outside. The extraordinary.
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We're fascinated, we want the secrets, right? We want to learn about what other people don't know about so we can talk about it.
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We want to experience what other people haven't experienced. We want something to come to us from heaven, right?
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Even if it's not true, you can write a book and make stuff up about heaven that's not even biblical, right? And you'll sell a bazillion copies and make
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Nebraska even more infamous. I've got a secret, I've had an experience.
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I've been to heaven. I've been to the outside, the outer limits. God who is beyond and above and transcendent has come to me.
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And I'm going to suggest to you there's something good and right about that.
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It's built in us to want that. It's tweaked, it's twisted, it's perverted and broken.
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But it's good and right because there's something in us that longs for this word from the outside, from God.
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And so let's take those right affections that are misapplied and twisted and tweaked and to say that's to be riveted on the one we are to behold.
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He came from heaven, from the outside to fulfill those longings in all the right ways.
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John knows and so he says, behold the lamb from the outside. The one who came to us from God.
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It's not a secret and it's not Gnosticism. He's to be beheld, to be beholden if you prefer.
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He's come from heaven. He's come from God. Therefore behold him.
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Now let's look at another reason that's looking at it from in a sense the exact opposite perspective, but not really.
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Number three, if you're taking notes, another reason to behold the lamb, he is one of us.
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He's one of us. Let's leave here today thinking about lots of different things about the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ.
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But please make sure that you understand that you'd want to behold
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Jesus because he is one of us. He's more than one of us because he came from the outside.
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He's the eternal one, but he's not less than one of us. You say, why would that cause me to be excited?
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We'll talk about that. Look again at verse 29 with me if you would.
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This is kind of the Puritan style. Maybe we're just gonna look at this one verse from a bunch of different angles and try to really get as much out of it as we can.
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Verse 29 says, The next day he, John, saw
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Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God. You say, why would you raise your voice when you read that verse?
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Because Jesus isn't a phantom. Jesus isn't some sort of vision that's not real.
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John the Baptist walking on the dirt in the Middle East, right? First century, real place.
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And he sees not some sort of intangible vision.
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He sees Jesus of Nazareth coming to him and that is significant enough for him to say,
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Behold the Lamb of God. He's real. We'll talk about why that's so important.
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Let's make sure that we understand that though at least. How about verse 9? Just I'm gonna take portions of verse 9.
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Coming into the world. That's significant to John. Verse 10, He was in the world.
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Verse 11, He came to his own. Verse 14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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And one of the most extraordinary verses, verse 28, and you won't think it's extraordinary and I want you to.
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These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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I want you to look at that verse and go, Wow! And otherwise we'd go, there's nothing significant about that.
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Oh yes there is. Are you onto my argument yet? Significant because we're not talking about something that happened to you in your mind.
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We're not talking about something that merely happens in your heart. We're not talking about something that happened in John's imagination.
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We're talking about historic events. We're talking about someone who came, yes from the outside, but who is one of us.
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And that's really important. Why? Because you really need to have your sins atoned for.
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And you really need to have a perfect representative who is of your race.
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You really need Jesus to be, yes the eternal one, but yes the one who is of Adam's race.
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One like us. And he is one like us. He's a real historic person.
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He's not an idea. He's not a philosophy. He's not a construct. He's not a phantom. He's not a force.
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He's not a thought. I love those words. They took place in Bethany, across the
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Jordan, where John was baptizing. Real dirt. A real place.
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Some of you I haven't seen since I saw you in the Tel Aviv airport giving hugs, saying goodbye.
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Some of us were in Israel together. I love being there. And I love reminding people and being reminded it's the very place where Jesus earned salvation for us.
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It's so good to go there, not because somehow you bow down and kiss the spot in the ground where Constantine's mom said this is the place and so we worship the dirt.
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Don't go there for that reason. But you go there to realize that when we're talking about Christianity, we're not talking about Narnia.
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Narnia is a great idea. Great fantasy. A lot to be learned.
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Christianity is not a fantasy. It's about history and what Jesus really did when he came here.
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John the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God. He sees the real person,
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Jesus. You know why you need him to be a real person? Because you're a real person.
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That's why we need him to be. Even think about historic
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Christian confessions, creeds. I'm not the biggest creed fan in the world.
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Think about the Apostles' Creed. Suffered under, you finish,
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Pontius Pilate. What in the world are we naming that guy? Pontius Pilate, he's a bad guy.
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He's a loser. And now Christians for a long time, probably not since the Apostles because I don't think the
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Apostles wrote the Apostles' Creed, but Christians a long time ago wrote that and what it says is helpful.
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There's more to be said. But what it says is helpful and true. Suffered under Pontius Pilate.
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It's a great statement. It's a great statement because Pontius Pilate was a historical figure and when we're talking about biblical
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Christianity, we're not talking about constructs and philosophies. We're talking about a historic figure named
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Jesus who was there outside of Bethany, beyond the Jordan. Yes, we need him to be that Jesus and that would cause us to say, listen, pay attention.
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Behold the Lamb of God who was one of us and oh, by the way, is one of us. It's extraordinary.
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Let's move on to another reason why we would wanna behold the Lamb of God. Number four, he is the
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Lamb. He is the Lamb. Verse 29, again, behold the
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Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God.
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The Lamb anticipated in the Passover, Exodus 12. The Lamb spoken of in 1
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Corinthians 5, 7. Our Passover Lamb, that's him. He's that one that was long ago anticipated.
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He is the Lamb of God likened in Isaiah 53. The one like a lamb led to the slaughter who is the substitutionary one in Isaiah 53.
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He's that one. He's the Lamb of God we'll learn about later in Revelation 5 from Pastor Mike.
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The one who conquers, rules, saves, reigns as some have called him, the apocalyptic reigning
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Lamb. He's that one. Behold the Lamb of God. That has all sorts of implications and is broad reaching.
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Jesus is that one. Therefore behold the Lamb who is none other than Jesus.
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Who's your favorite Bible character? Well, I think if you were to say
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Moses, he's a good one to pick. Daniel, another good one to pick.
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Esther, another good one to pick. But if you could interview any of them right now, all of those lesser, let's call them prophets loosely would tell you what the greatest prophet would tell you.
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Jaw dropping, awe provoking. Behold the
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Lamb, it's about him, right? We all know that.
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But sometimes on a Saturday morning we need somebody to raise their voice and remind us. That's what I'm doing. Behold the
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Lamb, the Lamb, the long anticipated Lamb. Number five, relatedly, another important reason for beholding the
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Lamb. It's because he's the sin remover. He's the sin remover.
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We have this at the end of verse 29, where John says, who takes away the sin of the world, who removes the sin of the world.
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He takes it away. If you wanna get your money's worth from a conference like this and say, I need to learn some theology, that stuff was pretty straightforward.
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The word for the day then of this lesson at least is expiation, expiation.
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Nobody should ask for a refund because you at least got a big multi -syllable word, right? Expiation, removal.
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Now the work of Jesus does more than that, but it doesn't do less than that. It expiates, it removes sin, it removes guilt.
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And so John is thrilled beyond measure to introduce Jesus and to tell everybody they'd better pay attention, they'd better focus on him because he is the great expiator.
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He's the great sin remover. He's the great guilt remover. Now, who cares about that?
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Maybe you're thinking, maybe I'd like to think, I know some people who would care about that because I know myself some sinners.
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I know people who are worse than I am. I know some bad people, you know,
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I preached in the jail before. I know some bad people because I know some people who live on my street and the police show up and I know some people like that and who cares about this?
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Well, people who are bad care about this, maybe really bad, not too excited, not too motivated to behold the lamb because he takes away sin.
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I'm a pretty good person. I went to a Bible conference with the other elect people who cares about this, would be people like you and like me by the grace of God who understand sin as it should be understood.
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1 John 3, verse 4 says, "'Sin is lawlessness.'"
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Now again, you might be saying, sin is lawlessness. Yeah, and I know myself some lawbreakers. Think with me about this.
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Why you should behold the lamb of God. Sin is lawlessness? Well, it's not talking about breaking the civil law, the law that says you need to drive a certain speed or you shouldn't take these drugs or you shouldn't do these things.
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Sin is lawlessness. It's in relationship to whose law? It's in relationship to God's law.
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And you say, well, I know the 10 commandments and I'm doing pretty good. In relationship to God's law, what really strikes me again and again is how simple and how important this is.
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In Matthew 22, verse 36, it says, "'Teacher,' talking to Jesus, "'which is the greatest commandment in the law?'
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And he said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God "'with all your heart and with all your soul "'and with all your mind. "'This is the great and first commandment.
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"'And the second is like it. "'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "'On these two commandments "'depend all the law and the prophets.'"
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How about that? Sin is lawlessness. And if the law in summary is love
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God with all of your faculties, all of the time, perfectly, completely, entirely, including motives,
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I have a message to you from God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away your lawlessness.
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And it's relevant to you because no one in this room has ever done that the way God requires.
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We've never done God's law the way it's meant to be done. None of us have ever, for one second, loved
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God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, with all of our mind. That would be loving
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Him perfectly, treating Him perfectly. And it just hasn't been done. And sin is lawlessness.
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The one who says they have no sin, right? John would say elsewhere, makes God a liar. Yeah, I've done that.
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Liar, liar, pants on fire, right? When we were little kids, we'd say, you're self -deluded.
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I'm self -deluded. It wouldn't be true. We don't realize how guilty we are, so we don't realize how magnificent Jesus is.
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The Lamb of God who removes guilt. The Lamb of God who takes it away.
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Not very impressive if you think you're a good person. Not very impressive unless you realize you are a lawbreaker.
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Such a lawbreaker. It's amazing. I heard one popular preacher say that we're not into rules and laws at the ministry here.
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We're not into rules and laws. What we focus on is loving God and loving neighbor. Think about it.
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We're not into laws and rules. We're just into the law. I did this last night.
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I'll do it again for effect because I want to make sure you all get your money's worth. That's when I do the scooby -doo and I go, hmm? I go, what, what?
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We're not into laws. We're into laws because that is the essence of what
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God's law is. I heard another popular person, read another popular person who said essentially the same thing, but she ends up putting it in terms of, you know,
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I'm just not really into religion. That stuff is too hard and all those rules. You know what
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I focus on? I just focus on loving God. My friends.
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It's exactly the problem. It's the greatest rule of all. It's not bad.
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It's good. It's right. It's holy. It's the appropriate thing, but that's our very problem. Isn't it interesting?
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We think the gospel is mean, which is good news, and we think the law is somehow attainable and easy and nice.
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What does it come to? We have a totally backward and opposite. The law isn't easy.
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It's impossible for us because we're in Adam. And so we need good news for someone to come and say to us, behold the
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Lamb of God, who takes away your lawlessness, who takes away your guilt because you've never loved
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God the way he requires ever. And Jesus is gonna take away the guilt.
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He's gonna expiate it. This is good news, but it's offensive to us because it insults our inner being worthiness or something.
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Behold the Lamb of God. He takes care of our biggest dilemma. He delivers.
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Number six, He's the great Savior. He's the great Savior.
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We're going to do seven of these, Lord willing. He's the great Savior. He takes away again, verse 29, the sin of the world.
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Let's think about the greatness of that. We'll look at it from another angle, but for now, let's look at it from its greatness.
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Jesus is a Jew from where? Nazareth. What good thing can come out of Nazareth?
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Wrong side of the tracks. The have -nots live there.
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Maybe if he could take away the sins of Nazareth because they've got themselves some sins, right?
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Maybe he would be impressive then, clean up the culture a little bit. And maybe he would be a great
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Savior if he took away the guilt of the Jews because a lot of people would say they're certainly guilty. Just think about the greatness of this.
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Let's not even get into the implications of what he means by world yet. Behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Just think about the greatness of it.
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What an extraordinary statement. And if it's true, what an extraordinary reality.
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Oh, but we're not just talking about constructs. If it's true, what an extraordinary Savior worthy to be held, to be beholden.
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I don't think he's saying behold the Lamb of God. Universalism.
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Now we're getting into the meaning. Think he means what other writers mean elsewhere at times when they say world.
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Behold the Lamb of God who's not only the substitutionary atoning one for the
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Jewish people, but as is so often the case in the New Testament, he's the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of all different kinds of people, not just Jews like in John 11, he would use it that way, but Gentiles too.
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He's that Savior. He's that Savior. By the way, our verse here is a universalist's favorite kind of passage.
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They say, see, everybody has their sins taken away. But we would wanna remember and keep our brains turned on and remember great, great statements like John 3 .16,
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that God so loved the world in this way, he gave his only begotten son absolutely.
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And that talks about its greatness and the great work he does, but we have to remember to keep reading, right? And you can make the
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Bible say anything out of context and you keep reading. And even in verse 18, he says, and those who haven't believed have been judged already.
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So we certainly know what he means is not universalism. And I would suggest to you the most simplest way to read it after you read how
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John uses these words, how the New Testament uses these words. We're not trying to make it less, but we're seeing the significance of what he means.
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He's the one and only Savior. He's not only for the Jewish people, though he is
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Jewish. He's the one who will save everyone, who will ever believe.
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Oh, by the way, that fits with way back what is said in the Abrahamic covenant. He's the blessing, not just for Jewish people, but for all the peoples of the earth.
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Different kinds of people, not just Jewish people. It's like 1
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John 2, verse two, he's the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for our sins, us
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Jews, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Meaning all different kinds of people, all people who would ever believe in him kinds of people.
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Behold, he's that Jesus. He's a great Savior. Let's move on to another one, and we'll wrap up this session.
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Another important reason for beholding Jesus as the Lamb is because he's the only Savior. He's the only
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Savior. We're not moving beyond that statement, who takes away the sin of the world. Think about the scope.
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It doesn't get any broader. If he's that one, if he's the world
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Savior, then there are no other Saviors. If he's that great, we have such an inclusive statement that the apostles understood this when they said things like they did in Acts chapter four.
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There is no name given under heaven. No other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.
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They understood he's the Savior of the world. He's the one and only Savior of everyone who would ever be saved.
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They got this. They understood this. By the way, so many times we are so terrified of our culture's hatred of exclusivity that we cower and we don't talk about it from the positive side.
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I'm an inclusivist. You should be an inclusivist too. Jesus was an inclusivist.
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John the Baptist, as weird as he was, was an inclusivist. We should be very inclusive.
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Jesus is the Savior of the world. Therefore, we're exclusive, right?
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Think of it in these terms, Matthew 28. Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations.
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Jesus is so inclusive. It's amazing. He includes all nations, not just the
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Jewish people. He says you need to step over every cultural boundary, every language boundary, every national boundary.
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You need to step over every one of these. That's just how inclusive you need to be. Of all people,
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Christians should be the most inclusive. We include everybody. With the agenda of making disciples of the one true
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Savior whose name is Jesus because He's the Savior of the world. He's the one and only
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Savior. So, oh yes, I have to stop the drama a little bit and say, it is
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His inclusivity that leads to His exclusivity.
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There aren't many Saviors. If there were many Saviors, then we wouldn't have to go to all nations.
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One great world, one Savior. You must believe in Him.
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Now it makes more sense why John the Baptist would say, you, aorist imperative, you, behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Not just people who are like Jesus, not just people from this region, not just people from this kind of background.
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Anybody who's there to hear Him, and it's gonna get even broader later on like in the Great Commission, but He's gonna say in command mode, you behold the
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Lamb of God. You must behold the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God is your only hope because He's the one who takes away the sin.
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It would only make sense. J .C.
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Ryle, about 150 years ago, said about this statement we've been looking at, this is the root of true
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Christian theology. True 150 years later, the things we've been discussing and considering,
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I've been proclaiming, comprise the root of true
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Christian theology. It is all about the Lamb. It is all about the one who removes our guilt.
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It is all about the one who is great and mighty to save. It is all about the one who is the
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Savior of the world. It is all about Christ, and so therefore it makes sense for John.
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It makes sense for me. It makes sense to say, behold the
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Lamb of God. And how about this? Keep beholding the
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Lamb of God. Incessantly be beholding the
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Lamb of God. He's the only one who's ultimately worthy of our consistent, passionate, fervent, intense, devoted beholding.
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Let's ask God for help to do that. Father, thank you for our time in this session. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who is mighty to save.
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Thank you that he in fact is the eternal one who became one of us.
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We're so grateful that even right now he is there at your right hand, interceding on our behalf, still claiming us as his own, even though we continue to struggle.
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We're grateful that our righteousness is not here, but our righteousness right now is in heaven.
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We're grateful that he indeed did give himself up for us so that we might know you, so that we might have a sure and confident hope in him.
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Lord, allow us to learn much and then allow us to be good and faithful ambassadors who could echo those words of John everywhere that we go in a loving, compassionate, thoughtful way to remind people, to tell people, to urge people to be beholding the